CLIFTON – Maine State Police are investigating a credit card scam in which a company claiming to be a South Dakota financial institution actually is using a contact telephone number for a limousine service in Massachusetts.

In the wake of the incident, investigators are urging people to be cautious about whom they give their personal and financial information to, or they could be taken for a ride.

In one case, a 32-year-old Clifton man received a call two days before Christmas from someone identifying himself as Chris from Global Financial based in South Dakota, said Trooper Seth Edwards.

Global Financial allegedly was calling to offer the man a credit card. In exchange for signing up, he would receive 10 free long-distance phone calls, $100 in gasoline and $500 in groceries.

But the company required an initial payment and, in the Clifton man’s case, that was $221.95, in addition to his address and checking account number. He gave this information to the caller, but became suspicious and asked for a phone number where he could reach Global Financial, Edwards said.

The man and Edwards discovered the phone number belonged to a limousine service in Mansfield, Mass., which had received other such queries. The company had been taking 10 to 15 calls per day for the past few weeks from all over the country, Edwards said.

The Clifton man had his bank put a stop payment on the electronic funds transfer, Edwards said.

Besides asking people to be careful about releasing personal information, Edwards said people who feel they may have fallen for a scam should contact local law enforcement agencies.